Slingshots, Christmas Presents & Alien Communication
The Supermassive Podcast
Izzie Clarke
4.6 • 556 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What would it be like to feel gravitational waves? How are satellites protected from extreme solar storms? How do gravity slingshots work? Are aliens potentially communicating outside of the electromagnetic spectrum? Plus Izzie, Dr Becky and Robert share their annual Christmas present recommendations.
Keep sending your questions to podcast@ras.ac.uk, Instagram @SupermassivePod or members can post on The Supermassive Club's forum.
Join The Supermassive Club for ad-free listening, forum access, and extra content from the team.
The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.
The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another bonus episode of the Supermassive podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society. |
| 0:09.0 | With me, science journalist Izzy Clark, astrophysicist Dr. Becky Smethurst and the Society's deputy director, Dr. Robert Matty. |
| 0:16.9 | We do this every year. We're doing it again this year. Christmas is fast approaching. |
| 0:21.6 | Christmas is coming and Becky's getting back. I'm ready with all the little things that I want to make over the Christmas period. But we should also talk about all the amazing stuff that's out there that we can think of for the space lovers in all of our lives. |
| 0:37.4 | Oh, are we might our own Christmas list. |
| 0:40.1 | And by that, I'm being myself. |
| 0:44.9 | So, Robert, do you want to start on this one? |
| 0:47.9 | What would you recommend? |
| 0:49.3 | What's going on the Christmas list? |
| 0:50.7 | I confess I cheated and asked people I knew in my local astronomy society for suggestions. |
| 0:55.6 | Shocking. But it did come out quite a shout out to. I think that's a good idea. |
| 0:58.9 | Yeah, crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing. Yeah, not cheating. That's using your initiative, Robert. Gold Star for you. |
| 1:04.0 | That's more data. So, no, shout out to Nicole, Jane, Karina, Taylor, Doug and Michelle for their suggestions. |
| 1:11.5 | So they came up with things which I agree with, I think. A gift of a night of local observatory. So if you're near someone like Hersman Sioux or Greenwich or these other places, that's a great Keelda, for example. That's a great shout, I think, an experiential thing where you say go along to an observatory. because even if it's cloudy you get the excitement of seeing a moderately big telescope and how it works and all the all the mechanics of that it's |
| 1:31.6 | usually a really really great thing membership of a local astronomy society no bias there but I agree |
| 1:36.6 | a night sky guide for 2026 i've got one by which is called does what it says on the tin stargazing |
| 1:42.4 | 2026 by nigel hindbbest is a pretty good one. |
| 1:45.4 | Binoculars as you'd expect, always a good shout. |
| 1:47.6 | And also though, practically, I also agree with this. |
| 1:50.4 | Maybe there should be star-themed or star decorated, a thermos flask hat, scarf and a folding chair for doing things like watching meteors. |
| 1:58.7 | Like knit someone a little like stargazing blanket or something or like quilt a blanket or |
| 2:03.4 | just borrow the centenary quilt. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Izzie Clarke, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Izzie Clarke and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.